


White Roses

by rudbeckia



Series: Spookylux Huxloween 2018 [26]
Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Death, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-05 09:48:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 786
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16365572
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Huxloween day 26: cemetery / crypts / tombsHux and Ben visit Phasma’s grave. They are not alone.





	White Roses

The morning dawned with a crisp scattering of frost that would be gone as soon as the sun’s rays touched the ground. Mist waited in the air like a spirit equally hoping and dreading permission to pass into whatever afterlife awaited. Hux dressed all in black. It seemed respectful.

Ben drove because Hux didn’t feel like it. He parked in the little car park beside the cemetery and waited for Hux to move first. Hux stared out of the windscreen.  
“Honeybee?”  
Hux started. “Sorry, I was miles away. I was thinking about the day I met Phasma. You know Brendol found her? She was a street kid. Smart. Helped Brendol out of a jam so he kept her. Nothing official, you understand, suddenly at twenty-two years old I gained a mouthy urchin for a sister.”  
Ben smiled. “I bet it was love at first sight.”  
Hux barked a laugh. “Not quite. Come on.” He got out of the car. Ben reached into the back and pulled out a spade and the bare root twig they had bought at the garden centre, the one that promised to become a fragrant white tea rose by the summer, and caught up.

“So you and Phasma fought?” he said.  
“At first,” Hux said with a smile. “I thought she was trying to take my place at First Order because Brendol wanted her involved in the training programme at implementation level. But we realised within a few weeks that the old git was pitting us against one another deliberately. Phasma told me she thought he was trying to get her to do away with me because he saw me as a threat. Something clicked right then. I understood in an instant that Brendol didn’t hate me because I was weak, he feared me because I was better than him at his own job.”  
Ben cocked his head. “Then what happened?”  
Hux smiled. “We called a truce. I quietly undermined Brendol but although all major decisions were taken by me, everyone still deferred to him in public. With Phasma’s help, I made my position within First Order both visible and permanent.”  
“So that day I came home and you were... making decorations,” Ben said slowly, “Phasma helped you kill your father?”  
“She held, I chopped. His expression was priceless.” He smiled until he caught Ben’s face. “Oh don’t look like that,” snapped Hux. “He had it coming. Nearly there.” 

Hux pointed. Right at the edge of the cemetery stood a temporary grave marker. They walked up and read the name _Phasma_ scrawled in marker pen on the wooden cross. Hux took the spade from Ben and drove it hard into the turf.  
“Are we allowed to do this?” Ben said, looking around. “Won’t it look suspicious?”  
“Don’t be a fool, Ben,” replied Hux. “Two men dressed in black digging in a graveyard? Nobody is going to ask what we’re doing because there is no answer that anyone wants to hear.”  
“Besides,” said another voice, lighter, from behind Ben. “It’s not as if I’m actually down there, is it?” Ben turned abruptly. Phasma laughed. “Surprised to see me?”  
“Yes! You look...”  
“I look like a walking corpse. But I’m no longer liquefying. Unamo knows a specialist in mummification and taxidermy.”  
“So you took my advice at last after all these years?” said Hux with a laugh, “and got stuffed?”

Ben shook his head and handed Hux the skeleton of the rose bush. Hux knelt to plant it with care. Ben eyed Phasma. “You do look good, considering. What happened to you? I mean... before.”  
Phasma sighed and pressed her painted lips together. “Brendol found out that Hux and I were conspiring against him. He tried to... I should say he _did_ kill me by arranging an accident in a First Order owned building condemned for demolition. There was an explosion. Next thing I know, I’m sitting up and screaming inside a bodybag and Hux here is telling me to shut the fuck up and lie down.”  
“I wheeled her right out of the morgue and nobody stopped me,” said Hux. “Woefully inadequate security.” He pointed at Phasma. “You should sue.”  
“About that,” Phasma said, looking down then away into the distance. “I’m officially dead so my assets are all frozen until the legal stuff is complete and everything passes to you. Unamo’s been really kind but it’s an imposition.”  
“Of course! Of course.” Hux got up, hands stained brown from the soil. He held his hands up and Ben gave him a puzzled look. “Right inside pocket, sweetheart.”  
“Oh!” Ben reached into Hux’s overcoat. He pulled out a slim, white envelope and handed it to Phasma. Phasma smiled.  
“Thanks,” she said. “For everything.”


End file.
